CHAPEL HILL, N.C – Today, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) visited the UNC Genetic Medicine Building to discuss the recently announced public-private partnership between UNC and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to create an HIV Cure Center and a jointly owned company, Qura Therapeutics, dedicated to discovering a cure for HIV/AIDS.

During his visit, Senator Tillis toured UNC’s HIV/AIDS research labs, participated in a roundtable discussion with UNC and GSK researchers, and held a meeting with UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt to discuss the UNC-GSK public-private partnership.

GSK has pledged to invest $20 million over 5 years to launch the HIV Cure Center, which will be built on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. In a testament to UNC’s position as a leader in the global fight to cure HIV/AIDS, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded UNC with $40 million last year for a clinical trials unit for HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and research. 

“It is exciting that the cure for HIV/AIDS could very well be discovered in North Carolina with the help of UNC’s extraordinary medical research team and state-of-the-art lab facilities, and GSK’s proven leadership on HIV research and therapies,” said Senator Tillis. “This innovative public-private partnership represents the future, a new market-based approach for biomedical research and industry to team up to not only treat diseases, but eradicate them.”

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